Tuckamore Bay

Nanny Dove

Bill saved himself from shitting his pants, but he did not save his beer. The bottle dropped to the wooden floor, hitting hard and spraying upwards, all over his sweatpants and the floor.

"Now me son. Youse best be gettin' a rag from in dere, in da kitchen and clean dat mess up 'fore it stains me floor."

Bill nodded and turned toward the kitchen.

"And youse best be puttin' our dat smoke, me son. Ifins youse wants to be smokin' then youse best be doin' it outside. Not in my 'ouse"

As soon as he walked into the kitchen, Bill flicked the cigarette through the open window.

"What the fuck?" he gasped, staring out the window, afraid to look back toward the living room.

"I did not just see that."

He shook his head.

"Its just the pressure of coming here. Stress. That's it stress. Its that superstition that matty was talking about."

"Whose youse be talkin' to in dere, me son. Youse s'pose to be gittin' a rag to clean up your mess. Its gonna be stainin' my floor soon."

Bill grabbed a tea towel that was hanging on the wall and wet it, quickly, under the tap.

"Okay Bill. Try to keep calm."

He slowly walked to the doorway that led to the main room. Peeking cautiously around the corner, he could not see anything, other than the beer bottle, on its side, near the spilled beer.

"Stress, that's it. Just stress. Imagination gone wild."

"Well me son, Ise knows one ting fer sure. Youse be stressin' me out 'bouts now."

Bill jumped slightly, turned and then screamed like a little girl.

There in front of him, standing in the kitchen, was an older woman, dressed in a simple blue dress and a long white shawl over her shoulders. Her hair was up in a bun. held by what looked like a knitting needle.

"Me son. Must youse be screamin' like that. Youse gonna wakes da dead."

She walked past Bill, or through him and into the living room.

"Now git movin' and clean up dat beer."

She sat in a rocking chair, near the couch and took some knitting from a macrame bag, that was hung over the arm of the rocking chair.

Bill walked slowly to where the beer was wasted on the floor and quickly cleaned it up, running back into the kitchen as soon as he was finished.

A condo in Jamaica was looking better by the second.

"Now me son, gits a dry cloth and wipes da floor again."

"Okay Bill. This is all just an hallucination. Maybe you fell down again.

That's it. You went outside to find Matty and got attacked by one of those mutant rats. Yea, that's it. You are passed out on the grass outside."